The new Gaillardia cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the inventor, Rosemary Hardy, at a commercial nursery in High Hurstwood, United Kingdom. The objective of the breeding program was to produce new Gaillardia varieties for ornamental commercial applications. The open pollination resulting in this new variety was made during late Summer of 2013.
The seed parent is the unpatented, variety Gaillardia grandiflora ‘Naomi Sunshine’. The pollen parent is unknown, as the crossing resulting in ‘HARAPHON’ was an open pollination, with unidentifiable pollen parents. The new variety was selected in June 2014 by the inventor in a group of seedlings resulting from the 2014 open-pollination in High Hurstwood, United Kingdom.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘HARAPHON’ by terminal vegetative cuttings was first performed at a greenhouse in High Hurstwood, United Kingdom during the Summer of 2014 and has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations. First sale of plants of this new variety occurred May 26, 2018 in the United Kingdom. This access came directly or indirectly from the inventor, qualifying for the exception allowed under 102(b). Previous to this sale, although the variety may have been publicized in print, plants were not available to the public for propagation.